Suzette Hall calls claims "absurd"

By Pierrette J. ShieldsLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
12/18/2013 12:02:40 PM MST

Updated:
12/18/2013 12:05:23 PM MST

Suzette Hall
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Picasa
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A Loveland woman reputed to have offered topless barber services who is jailed in Boulder County on charges of barbering without a license is now facing a prostitution case in Weld County, according to court records.

She calls claims outlined in court documents "absurd" in a Dec. 11 letter to the Times-Call.

Longmont police arrested Suzette Hall in November on suspicion of barbering without a license and criminal impersonation after investigating a local business owner's report that checks Hall used to rent a chair at a local salon had bounced. In the course of the Longmont check-fraud investigation, Longmont detective Steve Desmond interviewed witnesses in Johnstown and Loveland who claimed that Hall offered topless barber services and used her business in Johnstown as an outlet for prostitution.

Longmont police did not have enough evidence to seek fraud charges but instead sought a warrant for Hall on a misdemeanor charge of practicing cosmetology without a license and criminal impersonation, a felony. The prostitution and topless barbering services were detailed in the warrant but were out of Longmont's jurisdiction.

In a Dec. 11 letter to the Times-Call, Hall wrote that her husband and an ex-business partner made the "absurd" claims and said that her husband had been so abusive with her that he is facing his own criminal cases. Court records show he has three open cases related to domestic violence.

Hall also called her former business partner "vindictive."

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"The fact of the matter is there is a complete other side of this horrible story that your newspaper has found fit to slander, defame and harm me with," she said.

Johnstown Officer Doug Slocum said on Wednesday that he already was looking into prostitution claims against Hall when Longmont police arrested Hall on the licensing charge. He said Longmont's investigation assisted in his own work, which led to a new warrant for Hall on charges in Weld County. Charges of felony criminal impersonation, misdemeanor practicing cosmetology without a license, and four counts of misdemeanor prostitution were served on Hall on Wednesday, according to court records.

According to Hall's arrest warrant affidavit in the Longmont case, witnesses told Desmond in October that Hall opened a beauty salon in Johnstown called Rebel Beauty but had moved to Loveland and "is charging $45 for topless haircuts and is advertising on Craigslist." Her former business partner in Johnstown told Desmond they launched the business together but that the relationship quickly soured when Hall decided to offer the topless services. Her partner was "not comfortable with this as she did not want to have topless haircuts in her business because she is a single mother and ... she did not believe this was safe or proper," according to the warrant.

She added that Hall later told her she was soliciting sex with men in the business and said she discovered this after a "strange man" visited and she found used condoms in the trash. She said Hall confessed to accepting payment for sex and added that she also did "house calls."

Hall's letter does not specifically address why she believes her former business partner would make up false prostitution claims.

"I have been the victim of a vengeful, hateful bitter husband who is simply seeking retaliation for me defending myself from his domestic violence," she wrote.

She requested an audience with a Times-Call reporter to "speak for myself about this ridiculous situation."

An interview request is pending at the Boulder County Jail. Her public defenders have been notified of the request, according to jail officials.